An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 91

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 91
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 91

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He had been at work two days, cutting, slash-

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ing, burning, destroying , creating havoc in the sacred grove, when suddenly three full war canoes waited upon him. Pay was demanded for the destruction of the burial ground and the dead, in lieu of which blood alone would atone for the terrible insult. Goodridge quickly concluded that if money would right the wrong claimed to have been committed, it could be righted yet easier ; further, experienced as he was in dealing with them, he thoroughly understood them and was not afraid of their threats. So he said he would pay them what was due and started for the cabin to get the necessary supply of lead and steel which he purposed to offer, though he remem- bered that his ammunition supply was down to seventeen shots.

In the meantime his wife remained on the shore, talking with the incensed braves. She herself was a native woman, who had been reared by the chief of the Stillaguamish tribe, so had weight with her audience. Earnestly she pleaded and argued, while her husband hastened toward the cabin, dwelling upon his prowess as a fighter and the large equipment he had of guns and knives.

"Closhe mika clatawa!" said she, "Hi-ack yaka delea mesatche Boston! Vika mimaloose, cull- away, pose nika chicka." (Get out just as quick as you can as he is a very bad Boston man. He will kill the whole of you when he gets back. )

The Indians believed her and pulled out before the terrible "Boston man" appeared with his array of weapons. Nor did they ever again bring the subject to his attention. Thus did courage and a little wit, used intelligently, through one who herself was convinced and faith- ful, cow a whole band of powerful savages. Thus, also, was many a hardy pioneer compelled to win his way.

THE INDIANS AND A TOTAL ECLIPSE

Indians, like other primitive peoples, are wont to ascribe unusual phenomena either to the pleasure or the wrath of God, being generally ignorant of any but the commonest actions of natural forces. The whites have many times gained a moral control over their red brethren by taking advantage of this ignorance and super- stition. Charles C. Villeneuve has related to the writer an instance where a total eclipse of the sun was, sometime in the seventies, used to good advantage to increase the respect of the Indians for the whites and the moral ascendancy of the superior over the inferior race. At the time Mr. Villeneuve was residing in the vicinity of the spot on which the town of Conway was later built. The Indians thereabout were inclined to be saucy and Mr. Villeneuve determined to take advantage of his foreknowledge of the coming eclipse to influence them to mend their ways to the mutual benefit of both races. He therefore

announced to some Indian visitors, several months before the expected event, that unless the red men should mend their ways, a great shadow would obscure the sun's brightness. Of course the warning had no effect. As the time for the eclipse drew nearer, Mr. Villeneuve repeated his warnings and pleaded earnestly with them. Still no perceptible effect. A few days before the event, he sent out messages saying that his prediction would surely come to pass and inviting his red brethren to assemble at his place to witness it.

On that eventful day Indians came in crowds, the throng eventually covering fully an acre of ground. The whites, who were engaged in threshing beans on the place, laid off work as the hour drew nigh. At noon the sun shone brightly as ever, but directly afterward a haze overspread it, growing in density until that part of the earth's surface was enshrouded in total darkness. As the light faded the Indians became awe- stricken, and when the farmyard fowls began preparing for retirement, the entire assemblage was aghast with terror. The warning of the "Boston man" had come true. Excited and humbled, the Skagits surrounded the whites, imploring Mr. Villeneuve for protection and beseeching him to use the "Boston man's medi- cine" at once. With a few words he calmed them, promised to intercede and safeguard them, then retired to a distant spot to lend greater solemnity to the occasion. Shortly afterward the dark mantle passed slowly from before the face of the sun to the great joy of the frightened red men. Some reforms did take place and ever afterward the Villeneuve family was "hy-as- tyce" with the natives.

A SIWASH'S REVENGE

"One dreary, cold night, late in the fall of 1883," says David Batey, of Sedro-Woolley, "directly after supper, a loud, peremptory knock called me to the back door. I hastened to respond, at once throwing open the door to see whoit was. In those days callers at any time were scarce, and when they came at night it meant something out of the ordinary, for travel- ing could then be done only with great danger and difficulty. Not many cared to be caught out in our dark, endless forests after nightfall. Loggers, a few scattered claim holders, occa- sional landhunters or cruisers, and plenty of Siwashes constituted our population on the Skagit.

"Well, my caller this particular night all but paralyzed me. An Indian, George Buck by name, whom I had often seen and who lived on the old Benson place above me several miles, stood before me. His eyes blazed with a sort of fire I didn't like to see, his cheeks were painted, his hair was wildly disordered and his face, clothes

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and hands were stained with blood. He was a terrible sight and very much excited, yet calm enough in his talk. Buck was known as an intelligent Siwash, above the average, and was not credited with being a desperado, so I was at a loss and somewhat curious to know what was wrong with him. He wanted to borrow a lan- tern; said he was on his way home, and I promptly loaned it without asking unnecessary questions. As I went out to get it, many start- ling thoughts passed through my mind, and when the dull flicker of the lantern fell upon my com- panion's face and form cold chills disturbed me. However, I pulled myself together to meet any emergency. Vet I trusted Buck and he gave me no grounds for suspicion other than his frightful looks. When a man's in a new country he soon gets accustomed to sights and scenes that ordi- narily would shake his nerve.

"Next morning I went down to the river landing, close by the house, and found my lan- tern. Still I did not know the mystery of my night call; it only deepened. It was days after- ward that I learned the facts, which were as follows: Buck had, some time previous to his call, attended a big potlatch on the river, at which one of his family had been killed. A feud resulted. The day of his call, he had killed one of his enemies on the Nookachamps, just opposite my place. Murder had not satisfied his Indian heart, however; he had gone further. With a hatchet or an ax, he had cut the dead enemy into twenty pieces, which he piled up in the main trail, with the ghastly head on top of the heap. This was to Buck perfect revenge, the most com- plete vindication. From the scene of his bloody work, he had come to my place. He gathered his family and belongings that night and early in the morning left the country. Long afterward he was killed on the Samish by a relative of the Indian he had so cruelly murdered on the Nookachamps."

A HOME-SEEKING INCIDENT

Many of Skagit's pioncer women took claims in the unbroken forest which they developed after years of toil and self-denial into fine farms. An interesting story illustrating the trials frequently undergone by these aggressive female pioneers is related by David Batey and wife of Sedro- Woolley, Some time in ISSS, two of the young ladies of that upriver settlement decided to secure claims on Samish lake, one of the wild- est, most isolated parts of the county but unusu- ally rich in soil and timber. Fairie Cook, about twenty-two years old, the daughter of Mortimer Cook, and Miss Louisa Anderson, another young lady, who had just arrived from Sweden, were the claim hunters. The latter was at that time staying with her brother Nels at the Cook home. In order to reach the lake the girls were com-

pelled to make a detour via Warner's prairie, just beyond which they arranged to meet Theodore Lohr, a well-known land cruiser.

Fully equipped, the girls set out early one morning and without unusual incident reached the Thorne ranch on the prairie. There they spent the night, taking up the trail again next morning. They failed to meet Lohr at the appointed rendezvous, through a misunderstand- ing, and soon became lost in the forest. All day they tramped in a vain endeavor to find either the cruiser or some familiar landmark, but with- out success. At nightfall a drizzling, cold rain set in, which drove them to such shelter as they could find beside the trail. Miss Anderson could speak no English and understood very little, and Miss Cook was ignorant of the Swedish language, so their plight was rendered the more pitiable. The two girls were beyond doubt facing a critical situation, lost, unprotected, shelterless, in a dense forest filled with wild beasts and prowling Indi- ans, though the latter they did not fear as much as the former. Already they felt the pangs of hunger, for most of the small lunch had been eaten and they dared not finish it in so desperate a straight.

As intimated, they had no firearms with which they might possibly have attracted attention. But they used what they did have-a tin cup- beating it continuously with a key or sticks throughout the long, dark night. Miss Cook experienced great trouble in keeping her com- panion awake, which was highly essential in her cold, wet condition. Once the Swedish maiden resisted all efforts to arouse her until Miss Cook bit her arm sharply, frightening the poor girl. They sat on a fallen log by the trail most of the time, huddled closely for warinth and company. Thus the terrible night passed, an experience never to be forgotten.

With the dawn of day came new hopes, new spirit, renewed energy, and after traveling over many miles more of trail, beating the little cup as they walked, they were at last found by Lohr, who was making a desperate search for the lost girls. Their experience did not deter the young ladies from taking claims in those selfsame, gloomy woods. Miss Cook is now Mrs. Litchfield and lives in Chicago.

ANCIENT CHERRY TREES

Soon after David E. Kimble and his family came up the Skagit river in the summer of 1870, they planted, just behind their first rude cabin, in their first little stump-ridden patch of ground, a few cherry trees. These he had procured on Whidby island at considerable expense and trouble; they were of the Blackheart variety. As time passed, they grew into hardy, stalwart trees, bringing cheer to the home and yielding abundantly of their luscious fruit. The old cabin

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at last gave up its occupants, who went to live in a modern dwelling elsewhere on the farm, and the favorite old orchard was relegated to a posi- tion of secondary importance. Thirty-five sea- sons have come and gone since the cherry shoots were set out in that gloomy forest and still they bear their annual crop of fruit, an abundant, unfailing crop of excellent quality. Two of the number have attained to mammoth size. Meas- urements by the writer show that one is now three feet and four inches in diameter, the other two feet nine inches. They are indeed a won- derful tribute to the adaptability of the soil and climate of the sound to the growth of such fruit, examples referred to frequently by the entire community. Then, too, they are of special interest as being coeval with the inception of settlement and civilization above the delta.

ONE PIONEER WOMAN

E. D. Smith, Lowell's well-known pioneer, recalls an incident graphic in its portrayal of the rugged life which not a few frontier women were obliged by necessity to assume. Among these frontier women of the county's earliest period was Mrs. Lucinda Ferris, who became a settler on the Snoqualmie prairie in the early sixties. As pork brought high prices at the logging camps, the Ferris family gave much attention to the raising of hogs, realizing handsome profits from the business. One reason especially for their success was the fact that their hogs were fattened on peas, giving to the meat a superior flavor and quality.

Mrs. Ferris, through the inability of her hus- band to get around, was compelled to do the marketing, visiting the different camps along the water front in a boat. One day about 1867 or 186S, her market boat arrived at the old Port Gardner landing. She at once sold an entire hog and directed the Indian assisting her to deliver or help deliver it. The poor Siwash fumbled seriously, however, so enraging Mrs. Ferris that she threw him fully ten feet out of the way into the mud. Then she calmly shouldered a dressed porker weighing close to two hundred pounds and proceeded up the bank, to the amazement as well as amusement of the few onlookers who had been drawn to the spot. For many years this husky business woman was a familiar char- acter on the river, commanding the respect of even the roughest with whom she was compelled to deal.

ORIGINAL METHODS OF A POSTMASTER

Mortimer Cook, postmaster of Sedro post- office during the first years of its existence, was as original in certain of his ideas almost as the imagination itself. His neighbors never knew one moment what fantastic creation of his mind

would startle them the next, but they gradually came to expect something unique at every oppor- tunity. The desire to be original in his acts, to avoid beaten paths, was inherent in the old pioneer and he delighted in it.

Naturally then, when one day in the late eighties the people called for their mail at the little store by the river, they were not surprised to find that Postmaster Cook had evolved one of his ever forthcoming new ideas. The window was not opened on schedule time. Curiosity held the customary knot gathered for the mail, and not a little speculation was indulged in as to the cause of the long delay. All sorts of opinions were advanced and upheld by argument, for everybody

was certain that Cook had a new scheme on foot. Finally, out from behind the fixtures came Cook with several sheets of wrapping paper which he posted conspicuously. Then he retired whence he came. The sheets contained the names of those for whom there was inail in the office, and Postmaster Cook would not pay the slightest attention to inquiries unless a man's name was listed. "Is your name on the sheets?" he would ask, and if a negative answer was returned, that settled the whole matter. When asked concern- ing the reason for this unheard of departure in postoffice procedure, he replied that it took too much time to go over the mail in a useless search, especially now that so many new settlers were coming in. He used the sheets in spite of earn- est protests until their compilation became too great a task longer to be practicable.

A CAMPING INCIDENT

The dangers that beset the camper among the forests of Puget sound are by no means con- fined to wild beasts or the woeful effects of falling rain upon the uninitiated. When David Batey and Joseph Hart, Sedro-Woolley's first settlers, came up the river in August, 1878, looking for locations, they had a camping experience which neither has forgotten. They had filed on claims earlier, but, on reaching Mount Vernon, found the land lay in section 36, so were compelled to go cruising again. After proceeding as far up stream as Dead Man's Riffle, they turned the canoe's prow down stream and that night made camp on what became the original site of Sedro. The exact spot was at the foot of an immense cedar tree near where Cook's shingle mill was later built. Their frugal meal over, blankets spread on a bed of dry branches and foliage, the fire heaped high for the night, and outfits safely stored, the men retired.

Just before daybreak, Mr. Batey awoke with a start having heard a crackling sound; his com- rade was simultaneously aronsed, and on impulse the two men jumped away, dragging their blankets after them. Down crashed twenty feet of tree trunk, followed instantly by an avalanche

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of burning limbs, moss and other debris, com- pletely covering the erstwhile bed of the campers! The giant cedar had caught at its base and up its rotten heart the fire had insidiously crept, burst- ing out eventually through a crevice near the top, and burning off that portion of the tree which was above it.

A STIRRING INCIDENT OF 185S

One Sunday in May. 1858, Thomas P. Hastie and James Harvick were coming down the beach at Brown's point, Camano island, when they descried a war canoe swiftly approaching the shore. They were at that time engaged in work at a nearby spar camp and had been visiting at a logging camp. Quickly the two young men sought shelter and if possible concealment, for in addition to the canoe they also saw close by them a small band of Indians on the beach. Within a few minutes the war canoe, bearing fourteen braves, armed with Hudson's Bay flint- locks, came within hailing distance, whereupon there arose a terrific clamor. War cry followed war cry, gaining in intensity as the two parties came nearer together. The fascination of such a sight can easily be imagined.

Just as the long canoe reached shallow water and seemed about to beach itself, the kneeling redskin in the stern gave a deft sweep of his paddle. Gracefully and with incredible swiftness the canoe swung broadside to the shore, paddles disappeared and in a twinkling a volley of shot crashed out. Six of the surprised band on shore, which had been expecting different tactics, went to the happy hunting ground without further notice, while their more fortunate companions re- turned the volley and retired to a protected spot. The extent of the harm done those in the boat was never learned for the canoe retreated as swiftly as it had attacked, not to reappear that day.

FLOOD STORY

Mrs. Marvin, widow of Captain Daniel Marvin, recalls some interesting experiences of early days on the Stillaguamish. Captain Marvin came to the valley in 1864, as one of its earliest settlers, and Mrs. Marvin has the distinction of being the first white woman settler in the country lying between the Shohomish river and the old city of Whatcom. For several years she lived without seeing any other woman of her own race.

Once she was left entirely alone in the neigh- borhood for two days and nights, except for the company of little Frank Sly, four years old. Willard Sly, Frank's father, Robert Fulton, and her husband went to Utsalady, expecting to make a quick trip, but were delayed, thus leaving the lonely woman by herself among thie dangers of the frontier.

Late in the seventies, the Stillaguamish went

on a rampage, bringing disaster to all and every- thing in its path. As the water rose, the Marvins made what preparations they could to save the stock and for themselves sought safety in the upper story of their cabin. They were compelled to leave the pigs and chickens to their fate, for the flood came quickly, but were delighted later to see them floating on some logs Captain Marvin had been burning in the yard and to find that they eventually reached places of safety. As long as possible, food was cooked on the stove downstairs and carried upstairs to eat, but after a while the water covered the fire, putting an end to all cooking.

That night Sly's house went out on the flood as also both his and Marvin's boats, but the fol- lowing day the Cuthberts came by boat to Sly's place, and fixed up his barn to accommodate both families. Two days elapsed before the waters receded sufficiently to permit the imprisoned set- tlers to resume life on their damaged ranches under normal conditions and the effects of the flood were keenly felt for many months.

A MINER'S STORY

An interesting story, dealing with a thrilling incident in mountain life and concerning several well-known characters of the upper Skagit valley in pioneer days, is related by W. T. Odlin, cashier of the Citizens' Bank at Anacortes.

"In 1891," says he, "while living at Sedro- Woolley, then in the excitement of its great boom, I sold a horse to Adam W. Davidson, who was running a pack train into the recently opened Cascade mining district. That was years before the railroad went up the valley much beyond Sedro-Woolley, when packing and boating were profitable lines of work. We paid in those days from a cent to a cent and a half a pound river freight alone on goods to Sterling and Sedro, and often I've paid Siwashes thirty-five dollars a canoe, some carrying as high as thirty-three hundred pounds. Packing was still more remunerative.

"Well, in 1591, Tom Carr, whom every Skagit pioneer knew, was working for Davidson. One day he started from Hamilton for the mines with a pack of general supplies, including a lot of dynamite. Of the latter article there were sev- eral boxes, fifty pounds to the box, packed on the leader, my old mare. She also had a bundle of personal effects belonging to Jack Rouse, one of the district's original miners. Right on the slope of Lookout mountain, the bell mare's pack slipped. This frightened her so she commenced kicking and bucking with the result that dyna- mite and Jack's clothes soon began flying every way. She kicked or shook every box of the dynamite open and scattered the sticks all the way to Colby's mountain, a distance of eight miles, with never an explosion.

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"To the further astonishment of Carr, the mules following behind pricked up their ears in joyful anticipation apparently, stopped, and calmly commenced eating the sticks of explosive. With apparent relish they continued the strange meal in regular mule fashion, the astounded packer meanwhile keeping charily in the rear, until their greedy appetites for the sweet morsels of concentrated hades were satisfied. Carr said long afterward in describing the incident in his humorous way that he never touchcd one of those mules that whole summer long, even kept his dis- tance whenever possible, for fear the explosions had been delayed for his benefit.

"John Rouse, whom I have mentioned, starved to death in the forests of Central Bolivia in the summer of 1900. But one man out of the thirty who entered that plague-stricken forest ever returned to tell the tale. Rouse was left in his hammock by this one survivor, who had not strength to remove him, a prey to the kites and buzzards. Rouse attained some prominence as an explorer of the upper Amazon, Ecuador and Peru."

THEN AND NOW

"Several years ago," relates Harrison Clothier, founder of Mount Vernon, "I visited Henry C. Barkhousen on Fidalgo bay, one of the island's oldest settlers, having come there in 1865. Among the other interesting incidents which he related that day was one, simple in itself, but one which conveys a remarkably graphic picture of conditions existing here half a century ago. Mr. Barkhousen said that before he settled on Fidalgo island, he lived at Whatcom and for a term served as one of the county's commissioners. At that time Whatcom county embraced what are now Skagit and San Juan counties. At one of the commissioners' sessions James Cavanaugh, the assessor, presented a bill of sixty dollars in full for services rendered in assessing the county. The board refused to allow it on the ground that it was exorbitant. Think of it! Too high for traveling among all the islands and up and down the long shore line of the mainland and penetra- ting to the river settlements. Of course the pop- ulation was hardly sufficient to maintain a county government in those days, but it was scattered widely. To-day the latest statistics, compiled by the officials at Olympia, show that these three counties have a combined population of sixty-

eight thousand and an aggregate assessed valuation of seventeen million seven hundred and thirty-one thousand, eight hundred and seventy- one dollars. Cavanaugh was also one of Fidalgo island's earliest pioneers, settling there in the early sixties."

A SAILOR'S PIONEERING

A. G. Tillinghast, a Padilla pioneer of 1872, junior member of the noted pioneer firm of agri-

culturists, Whitney, Sisson & Co., now proprietor of the Puget Sound Seed Gardens at La Conner, tells an amusing incident illustrating the humor- ous side of life in those early years.

It seems that a young German, who had run away to sea while a lad and after drifting hither and thither for many years, had finally deter- mined to settle on Padilla bay, at last found a satisfactory location. About 1873 he filed on a claim on Bayview ridge. As a pioneer he was a failure, for he couldn't handle an ax, detested the routine of farm work and had a sailor's repug- nance to fighting his way through timber and mosquitoes. However, he would not give up his notion of becoming a land owner, so proceeded as best he could to make a slashing on his claim and to build a small cabin.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 91

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172